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Eleven teachers kidnapped this week in a troubled Anglophone region of Cameroon were released on Thursday, local religious leaders said.
The teachers were kidnapped in a raid Tuesday at a Presbyterian primary and secondary school in Kumbo, in the northwest region.
A local administrative official confirmed the release to AFP, adding that it was “the result of pressure from the population.”
Samuel Fonki, director of the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, said the 11 had been released and “are in good health.”
“People went there (to the separatist camp) three times to demand their release,” he said.
The government had said that only six teachers were taken, but a member of the group that negotiated with the kidnappers confirmed to AFP that there were 11.
The kidnapping occurred 10 days after seven schoolchildren were killed in a class in the neighboring Southwest Region, which the government has blamed on militants.
Since separatist violence broke out in Cameroon in 2017, the kidnapping of young people, attacks on teachers and the destruction of schools have been frequent in the mainly French-speaking western part of the country.
The government said on Wednesday that three other schools in English-speaking regions had been attacked since Tuesday.
The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, estimated in November 2019 that some 855,000 children in English-speaking regions were not attending school.
More than 3,000 people have died and more than 700,000 have fled their homes since October 2017, when militants declared independence in two regions where English speakers are the majority. The statement has not been recognized internationally.
Human rights groups say that both separatists and security forces have committed crimes and abuses.
Anglophones represent around four million of the 23 million inhabitants of Cameroon.
Their presence is a legacy of decolonization some 60 years ago.
In 1961, a British-ruled territory, southern Cameroon, voted to join the newly independent former French colony of Cameroon. The North Cameroons joined Nigeria.
Anglophones in Cameroon have for decades nurtured a resentment of perceived discrimination in areas such as education, the economy and the law.
The demands for reform and greater autonomy from the moderates were rejected by the central government, prompting the declaration of independence.
